Man ID'd by victim's blinks found guilty of murder

May 16, 2013
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Ricardo Woods, of Cincinnati is charged with murdering David Chandler, who identified Woods by blinking to authorities while he was being interviewed while paralyzed after being shot in the head and neck. / Hamilton County Sheriff's Dept. via AP

by Kimball Perry, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Kimball Perry, The Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI -- Ricardo Woods and his defense attorneys had so little faith in a video -- which prosecutors said proved Woods was a killer -- that he gambled.

Before his murder trial started, Woods was offered a plea deal by prosecutors worried about the strength of their case. If Woods pleaded guilty to the killing, he would go to prison for five years. He declined.

That came back to haunt him Thursday when, after three days of deliberation, a Hamilton County jury convicted Woods of murder and felonious assault. When Common Pleas Court Judge Beth Myers sentences him June 20, Woods faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years to life.

That plea deal was offered to Woods several times, Kory Jackson, one of Woods' attorneys, said after the verdict.

"Every time we brought it up," Jackson said, "he rejected it because he said he was innocent."

Assistant Prosecutor David Prem said prosecutors offered the plea because of worries about a 16-minute video shot by police that they said clearly showed David Chandler identifying â?? by blinking his eyes â?? Woods as his killer.

"I thought (the video) was very important," Prem said after the verdict. "I know there's a wide variety of opinions on that but when you look at it with the other evidence, it was powerful."

The video shows Chandler, 35, of West Price Hill, in a hospital, where he was kept alive by machines after being shot on Oct. 28, 2010.

Chandler had gone to Cincinnati's West End at about 2:30 a.m. with cash to buy crack cocaine. That's the neighborhood where Woods, 35, lived. Chandler owed Woods $400. Woods saw Chandler and exploded, prosecutors said, firing shots at Chandler and two other men in a car. Chandler was shot in the face and the neck. The bullet severed Chandler's spine, leaving him paralyzed, able to communicate only by blinking his eyes.

In the video, police wrote the alphabet on a legal pad and asked Chandler to identify the man who shot him. As police pointed at each letter, they said Chandler blinked three times for yes when they pointed to the letter "O." Woods was known on the street as "O." Chandler died two weeks later.

The video also was important because someone witnessed Chandler being shot that night but couldn't testify.

"We had concerns (about the case) because we had an eyewitness who was murdered," Prem said. "Losing a person who saw it and knew Mr. Woods was a big loss."

Woods, who left the courtroom after the verdict saying "I'm innocent, I'm innocent," will appeal, Jackson said.

In addition to the murder and felonious assault charges, Woods also was accused of weapons charges. The judge could render a verdict on those charges as early as Friday.